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Thursday, May 30, 2013

Dice or shred some cooked chicken. Add some chopped
hard-boiled egg if you want to and you have any handy. Add some mayo and a bit
of sugar or sweetener, and maybe some lemon juice. (That’s because I grew up
using Miracle Whip and sweet pickle relish, and I don’t use either one any
more. If you use Miracle whip instead of mayo, skip the sugar. If you use sweet
pickle relish, skip the sugar. You might still want a bit of lemon juice. Or
not.) Mix it all up. That’s the basic chicken part. Now add some veggies if you
want. Some shredded lettuce and/or some thinly sliced celery. Maybe some
chopped tomato or halved cherry tomatoes. Or small amounts of a bunch of
whatever you have on hand that sounds good. Thinly sliced green onions are good
in it, too. Mix the chicken and the veggies together, unless you’re just using
lettuce, in which case you can either mix it all together or just put the
chicken mixture on top of the lettuce. Chopped walnuts or pecans or slivered or
sliced almonds or toasted sunflower seeds are good either mixed into the salad
or sprinkled on top.

Combine chicken,
celery, grapes, walnuts and onion in a large bowl. Mix well. Combine salt,
Worcestershire sauce, mayo and lemon juice in a small bowl and mix well. Add
mayo mixture to chicken mixture and mix well. Chill for about an hour. (If the
chicken was cold to begin with, you don’t need to chill the salad.) Divide
lettuce among four plates or bowls and top with chicken mixture. Or add the
lettuce to the chicken, celery, grapes, walnuts and onion, and then add the
dressing to the chicken and lettuce mixture and mix well.

Cut 8 small (about 4"x4") won ton wrappers into 1/2" strips. Spray a baking sheet lightly with cooking spray. Separate the strips and lay them on the baking sheet, scrunching them a bit so they don't end up straight and flat. Spray them lightly with cooking spray and sprinkle lightly with salt. Bake at 375 until golden, about 7 to 9 minutes.

You can use either whole (or more likely split) chicken breasts with the skin and bones, or boneless skinless chicken breasts. Figure you'll need twice as much if you get it with the skin and bones, or half as much if you get it without. See my earlier post comparing the two.

2 cucumbers

2 carrots

1/2 head lettuce, shredded

2 whole cooked chicken breasts* (about 2 pounds total)

2 T sugar

1/4 c soy sauce

2 T canola oil

2 T sesame oil

1/4 c white vinegar

1/4 c sesame seeds

Shred the cooked chicken breasts. You want it to end up in
very thin shreds, almost like short strands of spaghetti. Peel and seed the
cucumber and cut it into long, thin pieces. Peel the carrots and cut them the
same way. Ideally, the chicken, cucumber, and carrots should all be about the
same size. Put the cucumbers, carrots, lettuce and chicken in a large bowl. Combine
the sugar, soy sauce, canola oil, sesame oil, vinegar and sesame seeds in a
small jar with a tightly fitting lid. Shake well, then pour the dressing over
the chicken and vegetables and toss well.

Monday, May 27, 2013

½ cup sugar (or less) or try another sweetener, such as
honey or agave

1 teaspoon lemon juice (optional)

Combine and cook over medium-low heat, in a small saucepan
until everything is soft and sauce-like, about 15 minutes. For a thicker sauce,
you can cook it longer, just be sure to keep stirring and checking often so
that it doesn’t scorch on the bottom.

Let cool and serve over ice cream, waffles or pancakes, in
your oatmeal or with yogurt.

Friday, May 24, 2013

You really don't need a recipe for most salads. You just need a general idea of what to put in and a vague notion of proportions. Does it matter if a recipe calls for half a cup of shredded carrots and you got three-fourths of a cup from yours? Or if it calls for six hard-boiled eggs and you only have five? Of it calls for diced chicken and you have leftover shredded chicken, or even pork? Usually not. You mostly just put in what you have and what your family will eat. Does the recipe call for pickled beets and you know no one in your family will touch them with a ten foot pole? Then leave them out. It seldom matters.

So, with that philosophy in mind, here are some un-recipes for salads. They're good as written, but they're flexible enough that you can play with them without hurting them. Who knows - they may even turn out better!

Turn coleslaw or cabbage salad into a whole meal salad by adding some chopped hard boiled eggs and some bacon and/or cheese. Or some sausage cut into small bits. Some sunflower seeds are good, too. I usually shred the cabbage for a whole meal salad instead of chopping it. It somehow makes it seem more substantial. I have this a lot in the summer when I don’t want to cook, but it’s good any time of year.

Combine raw cauliflower, a bit of celery (optional), chopped hard boiled eggs, ranch dressing and sunflower seeds (optional) for another main dish salad. Use lots of eggs, since this will be the protein for the meal.

Add a chopped hard-boiled egg to a can of tuna when you make tuna salad. It stretches the tuna. It works with chicken, too. Or ham.

Make a Cobb salad, with lettuce, tomato, bacon, avocado, egg, and blue cheese. Or any combination of these. I seldom use all of them at once, though they’re all part of an official Cobb salad.

Make a chef salad with lettuce, tomato, cucumber, egg, cheese, and leftover meat. Add some olives if you like them.

Make a spinach salad with spinach, bacon, egg, onion, mushrooms, and hot bacon dressing or a sweet dressing.

Peel hard-boiled eggs and throw them whole into a jar of pickle juice for pickled eggs. Or into the juice from canned pickled beets. Or add the juice from a can of beets to some pickle juice and add the eggs to that.

Make a “layered” salad. In a big bowl (glass if you have it, so you can show off the layers), put some chopped or torn lettuce. Then a layer of frozen peas, a layer of hard boiled eggs, another layer of lettuce, a thin layer of sliced green onions, a layer of halved cherry tomatoes (sliced regular tomatoes get too juicy), a layer of crumbled cooked bacon and a layer of grated cheddar. Mix some mayo with some salt and pepper and a couple of teaspoons of sugar and spread it over the top, sealing it all the way to the edges. Refrigerate overnight. You’re supposed to serve it from the glass bowl, but I find it works best to show it off, then mix it all up myself. Otherwise some folks get just lettuce and others get the good stuff. It’s a really flexible recipe. Sometimes it calls for broccoli or cauliflower, sometimes for sliced water chestnuts. I like to put some sunflower seeds in it, and some people use chopped or whole peanuts. Basically, just use whatever you have. You could mix some ranch dressing with the mayo for the topping, too, if you wanted to.

There are lots of simple tomato
salads. I cut them into bite-sized pieces and add a bit of mayo. Or some ranch
dressing. Or a bit of balsamic vinegar and olive oil. A medium tomato with any
of these would make a good sized serving. They’ll dress up the plate more if you serve them on a lettuce leaf.

Sliced cucumber in ranch dressing
is good. Or in sour cream, with or without dill. Or sliced cucumbers and onion
in a dressing of equal parts vinegar and oil, plus some salt and pepper.

Wednesday, May 22, 2013

Grill your wieners as usual, and toast the buns, too. Grill an onion or
two, depending on how many you’re serving. Soften some cream cheese so it will
spread easily, but be careful it doesn’t burn. Spread the cream cheese over the
toasted bun, add the hot wiener, grilled onion, and some mustard, and enjoy!

Grilled onions are great in a hamburger or on a hotdog or just to eat, and grilled
Vidalia onions are among the best. The sugar in them caramelizes making them
even sweeter. Cut the onions into slices 1/4” to 1/2” thick, brush them with olive
oil, and cook them for about 3 minutes per side. You’ll need a spatula to turn
them so they don’t fall apart.

Some people say to soak the ears, but I never did. Just pull off the
outer few husks, leaving several layers. Peel the top couple of inches back and
pull out whatever silk comes out easily. Don’t worry about getting it all. In
fact, you don’t even need to pull of any if you don’t want to. Place the corn,
in the husks, over medium heat and grill it for about 15 to 20 minutes, turning
it a few times with tongs as it cooks. Remove from the grill and allow to cool
just a minute or two before stripping off the husks and the silk. Use a towel
or potholder to hold the ears as you do so – they will be hot! Butter the corn,
or brush it with olive oil, or sprinkle it with chili powder or, best of all,
if you happen to be having steak or pork chops, rub the corn with a piece of
the cooked fat.

You’ll need a one-pound coffee can with lid, a three-pound
coffee can with lid, crushed ice, and rock salt. The simplest ice cream is just
a pint (two cups) of half and half (or whipping cream), half a cup of sugar,
and a teaspoon of vanilla extract. Put them all in the smaller coffee can, and
put the lid on. Use duct tape to be sure it stays on. Put the smaller coffee
can in the larger one, and fill the gap between the two with crushed ice and
rock salt. The rock salt makes the ice freeze at a lower temperature so it
doesn’t melt as fast and it freezes the ice cream faster. Put the lid on the
bigger can and secure it with duct tape, too. Grab a couple of kids and sit
them on the ground (or at either end of a picnic table) and give them the
coffee cans. They’ll need to roll it back and forth between them for about 10
minutes. When it’s done, remove the duct tape from the big can and carefully
pour out the ice and salt water. Don’t pour it on the grass or on other plants;
the salt can kill it. Wipe or rinse off the smaller can, remove the duct tape,
and take off the lid. Your ice cream is ready to eat!

You can
use a couple of tablespoons of chocolate syrup instead of the vanilla, or you
can mash up some strawberries and add them to the mixture before you start
rolling it.

Did you know that you can grill fresh fruit? It's mostly just to heat it up and caramelize the sugars in the fruit. According to Rick Browne in 1,001 Best Grilling Recipes (available in paperback or for the
kindle), bananas, halved lengthwise, need 6 to 8 minutes over direct, medium
heat. Cantaloupes, cut in wedges, also need 6 to 8 minutes over direct, medium
heat. Pineapples, peeled and cored and cut into 1/2” slices, need 5 to 10 minutes
over direct, medium heat. And whole strawberries need 4 to 5 minutes over
direct, medium heat. He also gives grilling times for apples, apricots,
nectarines, peaches, and pears, if you’re interested. I’m guessing that you
could do some fancy fruit kabobs and grill them. Watermelon can be grilled, too. Grill thick wedges over
high heat for about two minutes per side. Some say to salt it first and drain
it to get rid of some of the juice, others say to brush it with honey or balsamic
vinegar, and others to just leave it plain.

1. Remove
any large stems from the greens and discard. Tear the leaves into bite-sized
pieces.

2. In
a deep pot or wok, sauté the onion in a tablespoon or two of vegetable broth
until mostly faded to pink, about 4 minutes. Add the chopped garlic and red
pepper and another tablespoon of broth and cook, stirring, for another minute.

3. Add
the mustard greens, 2 tablespoons of broth, and cook, stirring, until greens
are wilted but still bright green, about 3 to 5 minutes. Stir in the salt, if
using. Remove greens and onions from pan with a slotted spoon and place in a
serving dish, leaving any liquid in pan.

4. Add
the balsamic vinegar, soy sauce, and agave or sugar to the liquid in the pan
(if there is no liquid, add 2 tablespoons of broth). Add the chickpeas and
cook, stirring, over medium heat until the liquid is reduced by about half.
Spoon the chickpeas over the greens and drizzle the sauce over all.

Combine all ingredients in a jar, secure lid and shake well. Serve immediately or allow the flavors to mingle for an hour or more. Always shake well before drizzling over salad. Store dressing in the fridge indefinitely.

Sunday, May 19, 2013

Brush sliced pineapple (I always used slices canned in juice, though fresh
pineapple would probably be even better) with some Heinz 57 Original Steak
Sauce and grill it long enough to heat it up and get grill marks on it, but not
to burn it. Remember, it’s already been cooked (at least the canned pineapple
has). You could use other steak sauces, too, but Heinz is the one I’ve used.
Actually, it’s good just grilled with no sauce, too.

(closely based on a recipe in 500 Low-Carb Recipes, by Dana Carpender, 2002)

1 head red cabbage, finely shredded (about 3 pounds)

1/4 sweet red onion, finely minced (about 1/2 cup or 2
ounces)

1 carrot, finely shredded

Coleslaw Dressing:

1/2 c mayo

1/2 c sour cream

1 to 1-1/2 T apple
cider vinegar

1 to 1-1/2 t
prepared mustard

1/2 to 1 t salt

1 to 2 t sugar (or
1/2 to 1 packet artificial sweetener)

Mix the dressing in a small bowl. Combine the cabbage and
onion in a big bowl, pour on some of the dressing, and toss well. You may want
to use all of the dressing, or you may not. Or you may want to use more, in
which case you’ll need to make another batch of the dressing. In any case, it’s
a lot easier to add more dressing than to take some back if there’s too much.

Mix ingredients together. Rub over the surface of the turkey (or, in our case, chicken), inside and out. Try to work the rub in under the skin. Let sit for about two hours before cooking. Can be used on all poultry (like chicken leg quarters) no matter how it’s prepared, but the recipe comes from the bbq page of the site. Store in a cool dark place.

Saturday, May 18, 2013

Main dish salads are great, especially in the summer when you don't want to cook. There's something cooling about eating a cold, crisp salad. While there are lots of formal recipes for salads, you mostly just toss in whatever you happen to have on hand. Here are few ideas.

Turn coleslaw or cabbage salad into a whole meal salad by adding some chopped hard boiled eggs and some bacon and/or cheese. Or some sausage cut into small bits. Some sunflower seeds are good, too.

Combine raw cauliflower, a bit of celery (optional), chopped hard boiled eggs, ranch dressing and sunflower seeds (optional) for another main dish salad. Use lots of eggs, since this will be the protein for the meal.

Add a chopped hard-boiled egg to a can of tuna when you make tuna salad. It stretches the tuna. It works with chicken, too. Or ham.

Make a Cobb salad, with lettuce, tomato, bacon, avocado, egg, and blue cheese. Or any combination of these. You don't need all of them, although they're all part of an official Cobb salad.

Make a chef salad with lettuce, tomato, cucumber, egg, cheese, and leftover meat. Add some olives if you like them.

Make a spinach salad with spinach, bacon, egg, onion, mushrooms, and hot bacon dressing or a sweet dressing.

Just as you can usually substitute canned cream-of-anything
soup for white sauce in most recipes, you can substitute white sauce for the
canned soup. You might want to add a bit of chicken bouillon cube, or some
chopped celery or chopped mushrooms. Or not. As far as I’m concerned, all the
cream-of soups do in most recipes (unless you’re eating it as soup, of course)
is to add something to hold it all together, and they don’t add much flavor
anyway.

White Sauce Mix

2 c instant dry milk (powdered milk)

1 c flour

2 t salt

1 c butter

Measure all ingredients into a bowl and blend very well. (A
pastry blender works great for this, or you can use your food processor.) Put
in a jar with a tight-fitting lid. Refrigerate and store up to one year.

By the
way, just as you can usually substitute canned cream-of-anything soup for white
sauce in most recipes, you can substitute white sauce for the canned soup. You
might want to add a bit of chicken bouillon cube, or some chopped celery or
chopped mushrooms. Or not. As far as I’m concerned, all the cream-of soups do
in most recipes (unless you’re eating it as soup, of course) is to add
something to hold it all together, and they don’t add much flavor anyway.

White Sauce

2 T butter

2 T flour

1 c milk

In a small saucepan, melt the butter. Add the flour and cook
gently, stirring constantly, until the butter and flour are combined. Slowly
add the milk, again stirring constantly. (Stirring constantly keeps it from
being lumpy. Or at least it helps. To be perfectly honest, it’s going to be
lumpy sometimes anyway. That’s just the way life goes sometimes.) Heat gently,
still stirring, until it thickens. This will make a thick white sauce. If you
want it thinner, just add more milk.

I wasn’t going to include a recipe for deviled eggs because
everyone makes them, but this recipe had 129 reviews and an almost perfect
five-star rating. A few hints from me – First, cook more eggs than you’re going
to need. Some of them won’t peel nicely or the white will tear. You can always
add the extra yolks to the filling. Second, for fancy eggs, pipe the filling
into the whites. Put the filling in a small plastic bag and cut a small bit off
one corner. Being careful not to let it squeeze out the top, gently squeeze the
bag to fill the whites.

12 hard-boiled eggs

1/2 c mayo (or half salad dressing and half mayo)

2 T milk (or half-and-half)

1 t dried parsley flakes

1/2 t dried chives (or 1 large very finely chopped green
onion)

1/2 t ground mustard powder

1/8 – 1/4 t dried dill weed (that’s the leaves, not dill
seed)

1/4 t salt, or to taste

1/4 t paprika, plus a bit more to sprinkle on the eggs

1/8 t pepper

1/8 t garlic powder

Slice the eggs in half lengthwise. Remove the yolks and set
the whites aside. Mush the yolks well in a small bowl, using a fork and leaving
no small lumps. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix well to combine. Spoon
or pipe the egg yolk mixture evenly into the whites. Sprinkle with paprika.
Cover tightly with plastic wrap until ready to serve. If possible, refrigerate
the eggs for at least 5 hours to give the flavors a chance to blend and
intensify. Actually, it would be better to make the filling ahead of time so
the flavors can blend, but not fill the whites until you’re ready to serve
them. If you cover the filled eggs tightly, the filling will stick to the
plastic wrap.

Cook onions in butter until tender; blend in flour. Add milk
and cook, stirring constantly, until thickened. Add cheese, stirring until
melted. (You could use cheddar cheese, but the processed cheese melts more easily.)
Place a layer of half the egg slices in a 10x6 pan. (An 8 inch square pan will
work, too, or a 9” pie pan.) Cover with half the cheese sauce, half the bacon,
half the chips. Repeat the layers. Bake at 350 for 20 minutes.

Grind ham and egg yolks together. Mix with enough cream to make a paste and
fill the whites like you would deviled eggs.
Place in buttered baking dish.
Thicken the soup with a little flour and water and pour over the eggs. Cover with cracker crumbs and bake until
light brown.

Make a pastry by sifting together the dry ingredients,
cutting in the butter and working it together with the cream cheese. Roll out
2/3 of the pastry and line a 9” pie dish. Roll out the remaining pastry and
make a circle large enough to cover the dish for the top crust. Put it away to
chill. (Or you can use two purchased pie crusts. Leave the second one out for a
bit to soften, then roll out flat to use as a lid for the pie.)

In a large skillet, melt 2 tablespoons of the butter. Add
the onion and cabbage and sauté for several minutes, stirring constantly. Add
at least 1/8 teaspoon each of the marjoram, tarragon, and basil, and the salt
and pepper. Stirring often, allow the mixture to cook until the cabbage is
wilted and the onions soft. Remove from the pan and set aside. Add another tablespoon
of butter to the pan and sauté the mushrooms lightly for about five to six
minutes, stirring constantly. Spread the softened cream cheese in the bottom of
the pie shell. Arrange the egg slices in a layer over the cheese. Sprinkle them
with the dill weed, then cover them with the cabbage mixture. Layer the
mushrooms on top, then cover with the circle of pastry or the second crust.
Press the pastry together tightly at the edges, and flute them. (Or use the
tines of a fork to press them together, going all around the flat rim of the
pie pan so the two crusts are pressed tightly together.) With a sharp knife,
cut a few short slashes through the top crust. Bake at 400 for 15 minutes, then
turn the temperature down to 350 and continue baking for another 20 to 25
minutes, or until the crust is light brown.

Heat a skillet. Add the sausage, break it up and brown it. Drain off some of the grease if you want to. Add the mushrooms before the sausage is completely browned and cook it until the mushrooms have given up all their juices and it has all evaporated. Be sure to cook them really dry or the quiche may be watery. Meanwhile, put the eggs in a blender and blend them for a couple of minutes. Like 120 seconds or more. Add the cream and blend another couple of minutes. Add the cheese and blend it another couple of minutes. Stop the blender between each addition or it’s likely to be thrown all over the kitchen. When the sausage and mushrooms are done, put them in the bottom of an 8x8 or 9x9 baking dish. (You can use a pie pan, which is more traditional, but it probably won’t all fit and/or may spill all over the bottom of your oven.) Spread them out evenly. Pour the egg mixture over the sausage and mushrooms, trying to keep them spread out evenly. You may need to go back and spread them out a bit if the eggs disturbed them. Bake at 350 for about 45 to 60 minutes.

Brown the ground beef, onion, garlic and celery. Drain the fat off if you want to; I seldom do. Add the rest of the ingredients, plus a tomato can of water that you use to rinse out the can. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer until the carrots and cabbage are done.

6 eggs, beaten (or not - I almost never beat eggs before I add them to anything)

Dash nutmeg

Salt and pepper to taste

Heat a large skillet. Add the onions and mushrooms and cook until the mushrooms have exuded their liquid and it has evaporated. Add the ground beef and garlic and cook until the meat is browned. Add the spinach and cook until the spinach is done. Add the eggs, nutmeg and salt and pepper and scramble it all together, cooking it until the eggs are as done as you like them.

Friday, May 17, 2013

Cut chicken skin into pieces about 2” square and spread out in a
single layer on a rimmed baking sheet. Cover with another baking sheet so the
skin is squashed between the two sheets. Put something heavy like a cast iron
skillet on the top sheet to hold it down. (Be sure to leave the hot pad over
the handle on the skillet when you take it out so no one accidentally tries to
pick it up or move it! It will be hot!) Bake for about 25 minutes with the
chicken. Carefully remove the baking sheet from the oven and pour off the
grease. (I save the grease and use it for cooking.) Take the Chicken Chips off
of the baking sheet; you may need to use a metal spatula to free them from the
sheets. Salt, if desired, and serve. Best eaten right away.

Just
season some chicken (taco seasoning is easy, or sprinkle the chicken with salt,
pepper, and cumin) and then cook it either on top of the stove or in the oven
until the chicken is done. Pour some salsa (you pick the heat) over the top of
the chicken and sprinkle some shredded cheddar over the salsa. Cook it for
about 10 minutes more or until the cheese is melted and bubbly.

(from a recipe in Top
30 Tex-Mex Vegetarian Recipes in Just and Only 3 Steps, by Annie R.
McNeeley)

4 large carrots (8 ounces)

2 T olive oil

1/4 t chili powder

1/4 t cumin

1/4 t salt

1/4 t pepper

Julienne the peeled carrots. (Cut them in matchstick-shaped
pieces, about twice as thick as matchsticks and about twice as long.) Toss the
carrots, oil and seasonings until the carrots are evenly coated with the
seasonings. Spread them out on a baking sheet and roast them at 350 for 15
minutes. Take the pan out of the oven and toss the carrots again, spread them
out in the pan and put them back in the oven for another 15 minutes. Take them
out and toss them again, spread them evenly in the pan, and roast them for a
final 15 minutes. Check them after the second 15 minutes. The carrots should be
soft and may not need the final 15 minutes.

Combine the cabbage, carrot, tomato, jalapeno, and cilantro
and mix well. In a small bowl or jar, combine the lime juice, orange juice,
garlic, sugar, and cumin and mix well. Toss the dressing with the vegetables.
Refrigerate until ready to serve. If possible, let it sit for at least a couple
of hours so the flavors can blend.